Meteor Dave

Just like with every other hobby out there, video games can be fun regardless of how complex they are or how much they cost. For someone who’s new to the whole thing, even the most basic game out there will seem like a wonderful thing, while for an experienced gamer nothing seems to be good enough nowadays. Fun is the key word, on the other hand, so it should have a greater impact on your decision when it comes to games.

Meteor Dave is an arcade platformer in which you have to collect crystals and navigate tough levels while trying not to die in the process. The game was designed for a jam session and it is as basic as it gets in regards to gameplay and graphics, yet it can be just as much fun as a regular platformer. However, it’s a bit harder to overlook its imperfections.

To begin with, the whole goal is to collect as many crystals as you can, but there’s no penalty for missing all of them either. The level ends once you reach the exit and the one begins, which means that whether you bother to collect crystals or not, everything goes on just the same. It’s a bit of a bummer, but at least you can record your high score with the crystals.

Because the game was designed and coded in a rush, there are quite a few imperfections you have to get used to. One of them is the collision detection system, because most platforms have huge invisible borders that make it difficult to approximate your jumps. In fact, you can find yourself stuck because of this sometimes, although there are only a handful of occasions for that to happen.

The graphics are pretty unimpressive at all, especially if you are used to modern platformers that feature great artwork and the like. In Meteor Dave you can only enjoy a handful of textures, which means that the experience gets repetitive in a rush. The music suffers from the same problem, but at least that can be turned off with ease if you are not in the mood for it.

In the end, Meteor Dave is clearly not the type of game you’ll remember for years to come, but at least it can provide you with a few minutes of entertainment. The sloppy mechanics make it that much more difficult, which is ideal for a platformer, in a way.